The benefits of content marketing are numerous, namely in that those who prioritize this type of outreach are 13 times more likely to experience a notable ROI than those who do not utilize this approach. Businesses who engage in content marketing have also been shown to increase their annual organic traffic growth, and generate 3 times the leads while costing up to 62% less than alternative digital marketing channels.
Content marketing does not only open up the conversation with your audience; it also allows that conversation to stay engaging and helpful with fresh approaches over time. Our goal at Anthem Software is to make sure your marketing is sustainable while leading to relationship-building with your clients. It is important that your content marketing is not only transactional but also engaging. It is essential that it does not interrupt the user from their intended activity, but becomes a welcome extension of it.
9 Surprising Benefits of Content Marketing
1. Increased Organic Search Traffic
With content marketing, and looking at social media marketing vs content marketing, you will see a significant boost in your SEO and traffic. Businesses cannot win at SEO without investing in a solid content strategy. Effective content is truly the foundation of organic search, which is the best way to increase overall website traffic. Continually producing useful and high-quality content to answer searcher’s questions will undoubtedly reward your business with better rankings among SERP (Search Engine Results Pages).
Backlinks from blogs and high-authority websites will boost a popular search engine’s trust in your site. And that trust will continue to strengthen as you provide data-driven content that intrigues, entertains, and inspires users. Content marketing adds essential keywords to your arsenal through each piece of content you produce, strengthening the results for your long-tail keywords. These keywords accrue over time, pulling in a diverse array of targeted traffic, which results in long-term and compounding ROI.
2. Higher E-A-T.
Establishing E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trust) is one of the best benefits of content marketing. Major search engines have been clear that these three qualities are what it wants to see from reliable websites. By providing blog posts and content that showcases your E-A-T, small businesses can reach their target audiences. Expertly-written content builds customer relationships and allows your business to be seen as a go-to source.
Content marketing extends well beyond transactional pages with its useful, data-driven blog posts that allow your brand to be seen as an authority on the subject. E-A-T strengthens SEO exponentially, leading more traffic to your site, which further expands your image as a trusted industry leader. When customers read your articles, they will view your brand as a highly credible source of information.
3. Expanded Brand Awareness
Expanding brand awareness is essential in the success of a business. Consumers cannot become loyal customers without first recognizing your small business as a viable option. Consumers must first encounter your brand before they can use it, and content marketing can encourage this to happen.
Whether through SERP content, a shared link from a trusted friend, or an industry resource, once a consumer can encounter it, they can share it, allowing others to encounter it, too. Before you know it, you’ll have a solid new army of brand advocates.
4. Clearly Defined Brand Personality
A brand is much more than an attractive logo and an identifiable color palette. Successful brands have reached deep into their core values to paint a clear picture of who they are as a company. They show the world what drives them, how they treat their customers, and what sets them apart from the competition. Your brand’s personality and values must be clearly identifiable to the consumer in order to create a loyalty base that will drive in more users.
The best way that brands can demonstrate these values is by using their voice. Use your employees and loyal customers to create content that draws in others. From energetic and upbeat blog posts to authoritative and straightforward tips, your brand’s voice can lay the groundwork to build the story of who you are. Product pages and category menus don’t allow your brand personality to shine, but good content does. Content marketing can take that platform to the next level.
5. Enhanced Accessibility for a Broader Audience
Content marketing allows businesses to connect with their users through multiple formats. All of your potential customers have unique needs, which means there is not one universal format that will suit all of their needs at once. Some people may be visual learners, while others prefer written content. Some users may want to learn from quick bullet points, while others prefer a video format, or listening to a podcast.
Content marketing allows you to keep your voice and values clear and consistent while providing the flexibility of offering multiple formats to appeal to your variety of consumers while relating closely to your product. Our company can help you decide which formats would be best for your particular audience.
6. Increased Social Media Engagement
When a visitor finds a piece of content on your site that they find to be clever, helpful, powerful, touching, or entertaining, not only do they become a potential customer, but they also become one more advocate for your business and your brand. These users who become brand advocates are invaluable, transforming your marketing ROI. Once you have created this brand advocate, this person will now be able to follow you on social media, genuinely engaging with your business.
This social media engagement leads to sharing your content with their followers and friends, lending their voice to amplify yours. These brand advocates cannot share your content or help your brand expand its followers without having great content to connect to in the first place. When small businesses have a content marketing plan in place, this new army of advocates will consistently have new content to relate to and share.
7. Close Gaps in the Conversion Funnel
Content marketing and SEO software for agency help you to support your users throughout the conversion funnel. These strategies are able to target the stages of the conversion funnel, which are awareness, consideration, and decision. Regardless of where your customer is in their conversion journey or what they are searching for, your business can produce the content that addresses their needs before they even know they need it.
By anticipating their needs, you can provide the content they are looking for at the precise time that they will find most valuable. This type of content nudges the customer along their journey, answering their questions before they have them in order to facilitate the next stage of conversion. For example, when a customer has a general sense of what they want, it’s your job to provide the content to convince them that your brand is the best option.
8. Better Conversion Rates
A site that is experiencing low conversion rates is similar to a person who is continuing to pour water into a bucket that is currently leaking; they are working hard without first fixing the problem. Content marketing can help improve conversion rates, regardless of where your rates currently stand. Low and average rates need a large boost, while high and consistent rates can always be better to continue growing your business.
The best way to boost conversion rates is by leveraging the benefits of content marketing with demand generation strategies. With this approach, your content can help your consumers discover new products, give life to your brand, and create a story that involves your customer. Your content can also improve conversion rates by answering questions and concerns, building trust, and showcasing the product.
9. Stronger Brand Affinity
Building brand affinity and loyalty is imperative to the success of your business. Content marketing works to create a cohesive user experience by offering the exact content your users need at exactly the right time. This builds a relationship with the customer that, in turn, builds a stronger connection.
By providing additional information they didn’t know they needed, your content becomes valuable, giving your visitor the information they need to navigate their point of interest. Pairing this valuable content with a strong brand personality will cause people to quickly become emotionally invested in your business.
Brands that invest fully in content marketing find themselves dominating search more efficiently while competing more effectively with billion-dollar brands. Small businesses are better able to pull organic market share from these larger businesses by creating high-quality long-form content. By taking advantage of content marketing, your business will experience all of these benefits and more. Before long, your brand will be one that your audience relies on for the information that your area of expertise provides.
You will also become a brand that your audience can’t wait to share with others, creating even more users. This kind of trust sparks customer loyalty, creating a brand that will be a force to be reckoned with.
